Hey DO students which did you think was tougher USMLE I or COMLEX I

[Ice Man]

Well, I took my step 1 today with my best friend (he's at UHS)at Kansas City. When we got out of there he said that the USMLE test he took was much easier than the COMLEX he took a couple of days ago. What did the rest of you think?

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[Kiki2004]

Yah, I am curious to know how the USMLE is compared the COMLEX. I felt the COMLEX kicked my booty bad!!! Every once in awhile, the questions would be blatantly obvious and then all of a sudden they were so hard! I don't feel I was forewarned by our upperclassmen. I am taking the USMLE in a few weeks, and I wouldn't be surprised if I do better on that. Some of my classmates took it before the COMLEX and said the USMLE was much better and straightforward. Obviously they said there was more basic science on it, so I was told to just focus on molec bio, behavioral sci, and genetics.

I had a lot fo cranial questions on mine! Wow! they were tricky! Some of the questions seemed to leave out key info...what did you think about the exam?

kiki~
MSIII, finally!

 

[dcdo]

I thought USMLE was harder for 2 reasons:

1. USMLE made you think more because it was slightly more case oriented and less factoid regurg.

2. You can pad your COMLEX score with the OMM questions if you read the Savarese OMM review book. You shouldn't miss any OMM questions with it.

Of course, that's just my opinion, as many of my classmates did better on USMLE or vice versa.

 

[Rad 1]

I took the USMLE today (6/7) and found it to be full of many nit-picky cell biology/histology. Pharm, anatomy, and biochem were all pretty benign. There were many straight forward questions. The things that I felt unprepared for were stats problems (nonexistent on Comlex) and small details regarding glycoproteins, etc. I expected it to have more of a clinical flavor. It seems that everybody's experience is going to vary b/c my classmate felt his version was more clinically based--lucky dog. Did I pass?--yes. Stellar?---not holding my breath. Felt much better about Comlex.
Best of luck.
Rad 1

 

[Pilot]

One student in my class took the USMLE the day before the COMLEX. She said she thought the USMLE was much easier and straightforward.

I'm taking the USMLE on Monday. I'll let you know what I think afterwards.

 

[Pilot]

Finished the USMLE today - and thought it was comparable to COMLEX in difficulty. I had a lot of genetics, embryo, and biochem on my exam. I actually went and spoke with the proctor during the break to see if the test was "adaptive" - I was beginning to think they were going to keep asking the same topics until I got some correct :wink: . I marked roughly 10 questions in each 50 question block to return to in more depth, but there were also questions that I just guessed at and didn't mark since no length of staring at the questions was going to give me the correct answer.

Phsyiology ,pathology, and microbiology were of moderate difficulty - I would know the disease and processes involved, but the question would deal with an obscure biochemical or genetic pathway involved in the disease. I didn't have a single question regarding renal, but they hammered the clotting cascade over and over. Only three Neuroanatomy questions, and all three had pictures for me to identify the structures associated with the pathological processes described.

The pictures were of good to excellent quality, and there was only 1 question I could have disputed for having no correct answer (I verified this when I got home). I sure liked getting the testing completed in one day vs. two on COMLEX.

 

[acurarte]

My scored were very comparable for both USMLE & COMLEX, though I did slightly better on the USMLE for Step I.

COMLEX SUCKS because of the length. Don't worry Step II is much much more straight forward!

 

[DocHahn]

I've taken both and thought the USMLE was easier. The questions were more straightforward and to the point. The USMLE itself was more user friendly. Its a hell of a lot less frustrating to click 350 buttons than color in nearly 800 bubbles.

 

[jimdo]

When I took the USMLE1 last year, I felt it was easier than the COMLEX and I did comparably well. COMLEX needs a major overhaul in terms of becoming computer based and less time consuming. Step2 coming up in 2 months!